Winter Constellations

1
Winter Constellations
2
List of Winter Constellations in the Northern
Hemisphere

• Auriga
• Caelum
• Canis Major
• Canis Minor
• Carina
• Colomba
• Eridanus
• Fomax
• Gemini

• Horologium
• Lepus
• Monoceros
• Orion
• Pictor
• Puppis
• Reticulum
• Taurus
• Vela

3
Orion The Hunter

• Orion is one of the most beautiful constellations
  in the winter sky, which first becomes visible
  around the end of August, and eventually
  disappears in the western horizon at the end of
  March.

4
Finding Orion

• If you look toward the east, you can easily find
  Orion's belt - three stars in a short, straight
  line. The rest of the constellation is easy to
  find from there.

5
Horsehead Nebula Barnard 33 Nebula

• Distance-1500 LY
• Dimensions-1 LY
• The most famous nebula is hidden just below
  Alnitak. It appears just as a dense cloud of gas
  and dusk, and is fairly impossible to
  findwithout a nice telescope. ?

6
The Horsehead Nebula
7
Auriga The Charioteer

• Auriga forms a giant pentagon in the Northern
  sky, with the Southern part touching Taurus.

8
Finding Auriga

• To find Auriga, first locate Orion. Taurus is to
  the right (west) and just above these two, much
  higher in the sky, you will see Capella. This
  star marks roughly the mid-point of the
  constellation, north to south.

9
Capella Double Star

• Distance-42 LY
• Diameter-15 Million km
• Luminosity-130 Suns
• Capella marks the tip of the winter pentagon,
  and dominates Auriga. It is one of the best known
  stars in the sky, but is actually a pair of giant
  stars separated by one hundred million km.

10
Capella the Double Star
11
Canis Major The Large Dog

• Mid-winter in the north is best time to see it.

12
Finding Canis Major

• Canis Major is very easy to find in the winter
  months. First locate Orion, and imagine a
  straight line through his belt. Follow the line
  to the southeast, and you will see Sirius perched
  right below it. Sirius is the nose of the dog.
  His body stretches to the southeast, and his
  front leg is to the west of Sirius.

13
Sirius Blue Giant Star

• Distance-8.6 LY
• Diameter-2.5 Million km
• Luminosity-22 Suns
• By far, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky.
  It is one of the closest stars to Earth, and
  forms a famous couple with its companion, Sirius
  B, which is a white dwarf which revolves around
  it.

14
Sirius captured at dawn
15
Canis Minor The Small Dog

• Canis Minor is very small, and is bordered by the
  Milky Way. It accompanies Orion in his celestial
  winter path. Its brightest star, Procyon, is one
  of the brightest in the sky

16
Finding Canis Minor

• Look toward the Southwest in the lateevening
  hours, and when you spot Orion, findhis
  shoulders Bellatrix, his western shoulder, and
  Betelgeuse, his eastern shoulder. Make an
  imaginary line between the two stars from
  Bellatrix to Betelgeuse, and extend it outward
  toward the East. About three shoulder-widths away
  you will nearly run into Procyon.

17
Procyon - Star

• Distance-11.4 LY
• Diameter-2.8 Million km
• Luminosity-7 Suns
• It is the eighth brightest star in the sky, only
  four LY away from Sirius. It is also a double
  star, revolved by a white dwarf, Procyon B. The
  name means before the dog because it rises in
  the east well before Sirius.

18
Procyon
19
Gemini The Twins

• Gemini forms a rectangle north of Orion, and just
  above Canis Minor. It has been baptized as the
  Winter Hexagon by astronomers.

20
Finding Gemini

• Gemini is located above and to the left of
  Betelgeuse. Once you have found the stars Castor
  and Pollux, the stars which are the "heads" of
  the twins, seeing the rest of the constellation
  is easy.

21
Gemini Cluster Star Cluster M35

• Distance-2,200 LY
• Dimensions-30 LY
• Gemini Cluster is located just southwest of the
  constellation. It is easily observable through
  binoculars and looks like a silvery cloud. It is
  filled with red giants, 100s of times brighter
  than the Sun.

22
The Gemini Cluster
23
Taurus The Bull

• In Greek mythology, Zeus took on the appearance
  of Taurus to kidnap the beautiful Europa. The
  horns are tipped by the stars Elnath and Dzeta
  Tauri, and the impulsive eye is marked by
  Aldebaran, a red giant.

24
Finding Taurus

• Taurus is an easy constellation to find. You can
  find it by following the way Orion's belt stars
  point toward the west.

25
Pleiades Star Cluster M45

• Distance-400 LY
• Diameter-30 LY
• The most famous and beautiful star cluster is
  just north of Taurus. The brightest of these
  bluish stars are perfectly visible to the unaided
  eye. All the stars in Pleiades were born about
  the same time, about 70 Million years ago.

26
The Pleiades Star Cluster
27
Winter Meteor Showers

• Geminids
• December 13th
• 30 to 80 meteors per hour
• Quadrantids
• January 3rd
• 10 to 50 meteors per hour